The One to Count On...

Pella Christian Claims Class 2A District 8 Title With 54-7 Pounding of Clarke

The stars were aligned in favor of Pella Christian last night as everything they needed to happen indeed happened and the Eagles are the Class 2A District 8 champions, winning their sixth consecutive game, and their third consecutive district championship.

Coming in, Pella Christian knew they had to win to secure second place, but also knew that if they won by at least 13 and PCM would beat Bondurant Farrar by at least six points they would gain the top seed out of the district. The Eagles took care of business on their end pounding Clarke 54-7 and PCM came through with a 6-0 win.

The Eagles were unstoppable all night as the offense scored every time they touched the ball in the first half including two field goals from Trey Hugen, a 32 yarder and an impressive school record 47 yard boot just before halftime, plus six touchdowns, four of which came from Brett Nieuwsma as he scored on runs of two, eight, five, and one yard and Sam Tvedt added two scores, a 13 yard reception from Kyle Nikkel and a 24 yard run on their way to a 45-0 halftime lead. The defense was also dominant forcing four turnovers in the game including two interceptions and held the Indians to 102 total yards in the game.

Comfortably in front the Eagles rested their starters the entire second half and still added nine more points on a safety resulting from a backwards punt that bounced out of the end zone and a 35 yard run by Nate Tvedt. Eagles coach Rich Kacmarynski said their plan was to put the game out of reach by halftime and the guys executed the plan perfectly.

The Eagles racked up 344 yards of offense led on the ground by Nieuwsma with 84 yards on 13 carries, Caleb Morgan carried 10 times for 54 yards and Nate Twedt tallied 53 yards on just three carries. Kyle Nilkkel completed seven of 13 passes for 99 yards and Nate Tvedt was the leading receiver snagging two passes for 33 yards while brother Sam caught three for 22 yards.

Following the game the Eagles had their traditional final walk of the field with their 12 seniors, and as they got to the 50 yard line, the PCM score was announced and it was made official that the Eagles were district champs, and Kacmarynski says that was a very emotional, memorable moment for every one of those 12 seniors.

The win improves Pella Christian to 8-1 overall, which is the most single season wins in their seven year history of football, and they finish 6-1 in the district.

The Eagles will host Roland Story, the fourth seed from Class 2A District Seven in the opening round of the Class 2A playoffs Wednesday night with kickoff set for 7pm.